26 Countries Gather In Hawaii For Massive War Game

[rug]

World militaries will practice five weeks of training, teamwork and blowing stuff up during peak tourist season.



More than 40 ships and submarines representing 15 international partner nations travel in formation during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2014.

06/28/2016 01:26 am ET
Chris D’Angelo
Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii

As summer visitors flock to Hawaii for sun, sand and surf, the militaries of more than two dozen nations will be in and around the islands for five weeks of war games.

The Rim of the Pacific exercise, hosted every two years by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, claims to be the world’s largest international maritime maneuvers. The Navy says the exercise, best known as RIMPAC, provides a unique training opportunity that fosters relationships vital to “ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans.”

The massive exercise also comes with controversy, drawing fire from Hawaii residents and environmental groups who say the games harm the ocean and marine life. Many of the activities will be far offshore, and won’t noticeably affect tourists.

This year’s exercise — the 25th since its inception in 1971 and the largest yet — kicks off Thursday and continues until Aug. 4. It will include 26 nations, 45 ships, more than 200 aircraft, five submarines and 25,000 personnel in and around the Hawaiian islands and in Southern California.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rim-of-the-pacific-2016-hawaii_us_5769a6e9e4b09926ce5cead1

http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/Pages/RIMPAC-2016.aspx#.V3JqjLgrKM-

Frankly, tourism is not my biggest concern about this.

[JonathanRackham]

1. Games like this are usually well away from the islands/land.

People probably won't even hear them. Most projectiles and missiles are inert. Air to air collisions are the worst immediate threat. The liberty call will certainly be interesting with a mega blend of cultures converging and involving alcohol.

[Adrahil]

2. This will occur hundreds of miles from the islands.

What are your other concerns? It's a good idea to actually train with your allies to ensure proper communications, protocols, coordination, etc. If they ever need to do it for real, those things can make the difference between success and failure, or even avoiding tragic friendly fire incidents.

[Igel]

3. Probably not a problem.

And fortunately we live in a society in which military exercises like this aren't front page news and a round of saying "rah-rah, go us!"

There are such societies still, sadly. Perhaps one day we'll at least get to the point where such displays of public jingoism and militarism are a thing of the past, perhaps as a way point on the path to demilitarization without risk. Until then, we'll still have such exercises but while they're public knowledge, they're simply not worth having the government rally public opinion around them.

[Just reading posts]

4. That is one impressive picture!

[Heeeeers Johnny]

5. The crews need to fly Targaryen dragon banners from the flagpoles.

[malthaussen]

6. I saw a video about a previous incarnation of these...

... what an incredible waste of money. The whole thing is "scripted" from start to finish, so it proves nothing. And the script... well, let's just say that ordering a submarine commander to sink an Aegis cruiser instead of an aircraft carrier doesn't compute.

-- Mal